HUDSON COUNTY -- One of the most powerful politicians in the state, and perhaps the most powerful in Hudson County, has denied unsourced allegations related to an FBI investigation of a West Palm Beach eye doctor and major Democratic contributor.

Dr. Salomon Melgen, according to the Miami Herald, has been a big contributor to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s campaigns. A conservative website cited unsourced allegations that the doctor provided Menendez with free trips to his Dominican Republic home where he allegedly provided “underage Dominican Republic prostitutes,” according to the Herald. Thusfar, the allegations have not been confirmed by a law enforcement source, and Menendez publicly denied them Wednesday.

The investigation, originally spurred by what the Herald called “the conservative media” just before Menendez’s reelection in November, comes just as Menendez was about to assume leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The investigation has been characterized by Washington Democrats as a right wing smear job.

Meanwhile, Menendez’s office told the Record the senator is fully cooperating with an investigation that led an Elmwood Park man to plead guilty on Tuesday to making an illegal campaign contribution to the senator.

Read more about it in this weekend's Between the Lines column on politics by Al Sullivan in the Hudson Reporter. Pick up your print edition or come back to hudsonreporter.com starting Sunday.